The New Frontier (formerly Last Frontier and The Frontier) was a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It was the second resort that opened on the Las Vegas Strip and operated continuously from October 30, 1942 until it closed on July 16, 2007.[1] The building was demolished on November 13, 2007.[2][3]Wynn Resorts currently owns the land.

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Contents

History

Name changes (1930–1940s)

Late 1940s view

The property started as a nightclub called Pair-O-Dice[4] that opened in 1930, then The Ambassador Night Club in 1936 and was renamed the 91 Club in 1939 for its location on US-91.[4] It was subsequently rebuilt and renamed the Hotel Last Frontier in 1942. On April 4, 1955, it was renamed the New Frontier, following a modernization of the resort.[citation needed]

Changes in ownerships (1950s–1990s)

In the 1950s and the early 1960s, the New Frontier went through a succession of owners and operators. In 1966 and 1967 (by which time it had been renamed The Frontier) the casino had secret ownership interests by Anthony Joseph Zerilli and Michael Polizzi, "two high-ranking members of the Detroit Mafia family" according to The Boardwalk Jungle by Ovid Demaris, along with Emprise Corporation (now called Delaware North Companies. In 1971, a federal trial in Los Angeles found Zerilli, Polizzi and four other individuals, along with Emprise, guilty of concealing their interest in the casino.)[5][better source needed]

Frontier marquee before removal

On September 22, 1967, the resort was purchased for about $14 million by businessman Howard Hughes. Hughes purchased the resort from the previous owners, which had also included Steve Wynn, with a 5% interest, in one of his early ventures when he first moved to the Las Vegas area. (Wynn indicated that he did not know that the other owners had mob connections.[citation needed]

In September 1991, union workers began a strike at the hotel, which lasted for years.[citation needed]

Frontier down Strip from Stratosphere

Strike

From September 21, 1991 until February 1, 1998 members of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 in Las Vegas staged a strike against the New Frontier and the Elardis. A settlement was reached on October 28, 1997 when Ruffin announced he would purchase the New Frontier from the Elardis for $165 million. The strike ended when Ruffin officially took possession.

According to an article in the Las Vegas Sun, the following events occurred during the strike:

17 CWU Local 226 strikers died.

106 babies were born to CWU member mothers who have walked the picket.

In March 2005, with Las Vegas's fortunes on the rise, Ruffin announced new plans to demolish the current facility and replace it with a new resort with 3,000 rooms.[6] The $2-billion Montreux/ˈmɒntroʊ/ resort was to be entirely funded by him (with no partners). The name Montreux came from the famed Swiss resort which sponsors the yearly Montreux Jazz Festival. The upscale 2,750 room resort was intended to compete with The Mirage and Paris Las Vegas. It was to use jazz music as a draw. Ruffin said, "We don't really have a Strip casino that advertises good jazz music." A second Montreux Jazz Festival could have been a yearly event at the resort. The resort was to feature a 500-foot (152 m) tall Ferris wheel similar in size to the famous London Eye.

Closure (2007)

The New Frontier closed its doors at midnight on July 16, 2007, and was demolished by implosion on November 13 (Clauss Construction and Controlled Demolition, Inc.). The Atrium Tower was imploded with over 1,000 pounds of explosives. The demolition and its preparation were filmed for the National Geographic Channel and a program called Blowdown: Vegas Casino. The hotel's marquee remained standing until December 10, 2008, when it was taken down at the request of Steve Wynn prior to the opening of the Encore Las Vegas across the street.

In 2014, Crown Resorts and Oaktree Capital Management announced the acquisition of the property with the intent to build the Alon Las Vegas.[10] The project was halted in December 2016[11] and the land went up for sale in May 2017.[12] On December 13, 2017, Wynn Resorts announced that it is buying the property, along with an additional attached four acres, for $336 million. No plans for when and how the property will be developed accompanied the announcement.[13]

Atrium Tower

The Atrium Tower lasted only 18 years, being built in 1989 and imploded in 2007. The other two towers were built in 1967 and were dismantled by January 2008.